Good day:

Upgrading speakers in standard audio setup 99 xk8 convertable. Doing the front first and putting component in. Read the threads and understand the wiring. I was looking for the power output of the standard radio head unit and also make and model. I believe its an alpine. Was wondering how much power so I know how far I can take the upgrade. Do not want to go with a power amp and keeping it as simple as possible

Thanks

Howard

PS: Live in Newfoundland Canada and having the worst dampest coldest summer in years while the rest of north america bakes. At least I dont have to worry about the green shower as the top has not been down in awhile !!!!!!!!

 

You will find that the head unit is short on power if you only upgrade the speakers. I installed some infinity kappa's 2 ohm, and while they sounded cleaner, they actually couldn't perform to their best potential without aditional power.
I have no figures for the output of the head, but guess 25 watts at best.
While this is not a high power output, it is quite a good quality unit.
What i did was to feed a power amp from the rear speaker input cables, and return it to the front speakers via the unused sub wiring, which runs from the rear shelf to the centre console. Crossovers installed below the console, which gave outputs to the mid bass door speakers, and mid range in the dash. The amp, installed in the boot (trunk) also directly powers a sub fitted in the rear shelf position.
The rear speakers were removed as they add very little to a good set up.

 

I have tried a few things to getter better sound, but the old head units are just not man enough, even with an additional amp it still does not give you the best outcome.

Take a look HERE for some pics on our facebook page might give you some ideas

 

Tks for the reply
Have convinced me to go aftermarket
Was reserching but the only thing that was giving me pause was the bezel around the radio. But that was a neat idea of cutting the old one. Easy plastic to cut ?????. It will give it the same texture and look. I think I will keep the steering wheel controls so I need a wired remote input on the back or the stereo head

Howard

 

To avoid hyaving to cut up the bezel when adding a 1 DIN unit and for the steering wheel controls this may help. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...ontrols-56937/

 

Very easy to do, and I have to admit I am not a big fan of the XJ surround, it is definately better than nothing but you still get that big step at the bottom and I dont think it is any good if you have the later type head unit fitted I beleive from 2000 on as the main surround with all the other controls in is also a different shape.

I did not think twice about cutting up the original head unit it would of only gone in the bin anyway, but I must admit there some VERY optimistic people out trying to sell them for £100 a pop

 

hey xkracer, I see you experimented with the JL Audio 8w3v3 in the stock xk coupe with good results. That's good to know, finding decent free-air subs is harder to find these days.

 

The thing is it is not suppose to be a free air sub, we just did it as an experiment and if it did not work we considered making a box to suit, but it did work, and work much better than the original. It only just fitted, very close to the fuel tank, but a fit is a fit